Day England’s luck ran out...
South Africans crush their dream Harry toasts the jubilant winners ...as PM watches with Dilyn the dog
THEY had dared to dream, but luck ran out for England’s bloodied and bruised rugby heroes yesterday as they were out-fought, out-thought and eventually out-classed by South Africa.
For tens of thousands of England fans, including Prince Harry, in Japan’s Yokohama Stadium and upwards of ten million more watching in pubs and living rooms across Britain, the 32-12 defeat made for a painful 80 minutes.
Afterwards, the Duke of Sussex – who had delivered a good luck message to coach Eddie Jones’s squad before the game and whose son, Archie, was dressed in an England rugby babygrow to watch at home with mother Meghan – joined the South African players in a jubilant dressing room.
After clinking beer bottles with South Africa skipper Siya Kolisi and his team-mates Harry posted on his Instagram account: ‘Tonight was not England’s night, but the whole nation is incredibly proud of what England Rugby have achieved over the past few months. Hold your heads high boys, you did an outstanding job and we couldn’t have asked more from you.
‘To the whole of South Africa – rugby unites all of us in more ways than we can imagine, and tonight I have no doubt that it will unite all of you.’
Expectant England fans poured into pubs and rugby clubhouses which opened to serve breakfast and beer before the 9am kick-off.
By the time normal opening hours began at 11am, many were drowning their sorrows, with Jones ruefully saying that he and his team would not be far behind them.
‘After we have a few beers today, we will probably have a few more beers tomorrow and maybe Monday, and then maybe we will have to pull up stumps,’ he said.
Even before the match began, luck was seemingly not on England’s side. First, the team’s coach arrived 20 minutes late to pick up the players from their hotel, disrupting crucial last-minute preparations.
Then they lost powerhouse prop Kyle Sinckler, the hero of the quarter-final win over Australia. He was left prone on the turf not by the muscle of South Africa’s 142-stone forward pack, but by an accidental stray elbow from his team-mate Maro Itoje.
Jones, whose meticulous planning had made England 4-9-on favourites at kick-off, could not summon up a tactical solution to South Africa’s brute force. His lucky ‘omamori’ bracelet, sourced from a Japanese temple before he coached Japan to a famous win over South Africa in 2015, had no answers either.
In the sleepy village of Fatausi on the Samoan island of Savai’i, the family of England’s Manu Tuilagi crowded around an altar in their home to offer prayers and then around a makeshift screen in the garden. The prayers went unanswered, but Tuilagi’s mother Su’a Ali’itasi said: ‘I’m grateful to God for the safety of Manu and other players… not all boats come first in a race, only one will win.’
England were unable to repeat the frenzied opening assault they had produced against New Zeal a nd in t he s e mi- f i nal . Instead, the teams traded penalty kicks before half-time.
After the break, South Africa’s grip tightened and they scored two tries – securing not only their third world title but also the second highest margin of victory in a final.
Such was their dominance that South Africa’s name was already being etched on to the trophy with three minutes left to play. For England, it was a repeat of the 2007 defeat to South Africa at the tournament in France and their third defeat in four finals. As the players filed sombrely past the trophy to collect their runner- up medals, a despondent Itoje refused to have his placed around his neck, and several players removed them, leading to criticism that they were ‘sore losers’. The defeat hurt deeply but Jones remained philosophical. ‘They were too good for us,’ he said. ‘That’s the great thing about rugby, one day you’re the best in the world, the next a team knocks you off.’ Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who posted a picture of himself watching the game on TV with his dog Dilyn, concurred. ‘ Hats off to South Africa who were just rocklike i n defence today but England Rugby can hold their heads high after an amazing tournament,’ he wrote.
And there was optimism for the future. Seven players from the current England squad will still be under 30 by the next World Cup in France in 2023. Itoje said: ‘We want to get better and most of this squad will be at the next one.’
England fans who had travelled to Japan filtered into bars. Gary
Knock, originally from Leicester but now living in Australia, paid £500 for his ticket. ‘I am gutted, yet right from the start you could sense the nervousness in the English team,’ he said. And Will Reed, who flew from the UK to Japan via Turkey on Friday to make the final, said: ‘England never got going.’
At the William Webb Ellis pub in Rugby, named after the schoolboy who is said to have invented the game, the bar was still thronged even after defeat as commiserating fans enjoyed some of the extra one million pints that publicans were expecting to pour yesterday.
The mood was perhaps best summed up by 11- year- old Jack Johnson, who suffers from the rare muscle-wasting disease Duchenne muscular dystrophy. England captain Owen Farrell, who has befriended Jack, links his fingers in a ‘JJ’ salute after each successful kick. After watching England lose at his home in Wigan, the ‘heartbroken’ youngster said: ‘Don’t worry Owen, you’re still my hero. It’s been a fantastic World Cup and I’m proud of you all.’